Post Game Pandemonium: AFL Rd 3: Carlton vs Fremantle

[Gointocarlton]

Sorry mate I don't have the time to find the incident. (Work and two boys 6 and 4 keep me busy). It was a little further up the ground and closer to the boundary than the one you showed. It might not look as bad on TV as he did make contact with the player but we just happened to be in direct line of it and everyone saw him move. I'm not calling him gutless, he has put his body on the line in the past and proven he would do it. I'm just saying he no longer can or will and that his body is no longer up to the demands of AFL.
If we want to win a premiership we have to be ruthless. History shows not many nice teams win flags.

But I also think every premiership team has a Murph type player in it. Look I am not suggesting Murph has done the courageous acts Nick Riewoldt or J Brown, have done, but he is no where near as bad as many make out. Over his career, he has stuck his nose over it and got absolutely poleaxed in most games he's played, and he has paid for it and will continue to pay for it for life as the aches and pains grow stronger. If I thought about, Im sure I could name plenty of blokes, who many idolise, that sleep with the lights on. But thats never gonna change peoples opinion that Murph is a softcock. I'll instead revert to King Carey's comments made during a Friday night  telecast who said Murph is as courageous as as anyone.

[LP]

I'll instead revert to King Carey's comments made during a Friday night  telecast who said Murph is as courageous as as anyone.

This is clearly the truth, the problem I think is one of language, in that some people define courage very narrowly like they define tough.

Craig Bradley was tough, but even by sMurph's standards was a soft as butter in the physical contest, but Bradley would run until he threw up and then he'd run some more, much like Robert Harvey. That is both courageous and tough, it's just not bare knuckle tough!

Most of these "tough guys" in the basic sense, would fold like a house of cards under the Robert Harvey, Craig Bradley type toughness. They'd be terrified at the thought of having to push themselves like that just once a season in a time trial let alone a game!

Some people think beating their kid toughens them up, others think it's a pissweak act!

sMurph has spent more than a decade at Carlton being poleaxed by bigger heavier opponents, blokes like Hodge, and received little or no protection from team-mates like the pissweak Tuohy or Henderson. Yet sMurph fronts up, week after week, doing the tough stuff he needs to do to get back on the park.

It's pretty thin logic calling any of them soft!

[PaulP]

Murphy dislocated his shoulder in his debut season, in tackle by Robert Copeland. Another shoulder injury colliding with Dangerfield in 2012 and a busted cheekbone colliding with Hodge in 2013. And there's probably others that I can't recall. Those three blokes are bigger and heavier than Murphy. Any apprehensiveness on his part is perhaps understandable. He's small, not dirty and alway tried to be a ball player, and has paid the price.

I'm not a fan of labelling any AFL footballer soft. I think it's distasteful. Even the "softest" player does things that would leave all of us running twice as fast the other way.

[ElwoodBlues1]

Its a game of contested footy these days...being a one or two trick pony isnt going to make you a champ anymore.
The games best player Dusty Martin is the best because he is the best at the No1 skill required and thats winning the football in a contested situation on a consistent basis.
Bradley was a tough athlete, relentless running as suggested but the game has evolved......Bradleys equivalent Brad Hill is highly skilled but like Murphy is finding the relentless contested footy and pressure not to his liking when now in a team that doesnt have the depth of contested players to help him out more like he had at the Hawks.
Shaun Grigg was a soft average Carlton mid but a successful tiger utility because he was able to hide in the jungle of tough Tigers who could do the hard contested stuff, Murphy doesnt have the same jungle to hide in with us....

[capcom]

Right on [member=64]PaulP[/member]

Buckley and Johnston were incredibly tough on their own, but they played with some brutal big guys who'd exact savage revenge and, more than often did.  Cross Mario, Wow, Val, and you'd get it back in spades. 

[LP]

Murphy dislocated his shoulder in his debut season, in tackle by Robert Copeland. Another shoulder injury colliding with Dangerfield in 2012 and a busted cheekbone colliding with Hodge in 2013. And there's probably others that I can't recall. Those three blokes are bigger and heavier than Murphy. Any apprehensiveness on his part is perhaps understandable. He's small, not dirty and alway tried to be a ball player, and has paid the price.

I'm not a fan of labelling any AFL footballer soft. I think it's distasteful. Even the "softest" player does things that would leave all of us running twice as fast the other way.

Agreed, and I remain convinced it's a very narrow perspective of what people think tough is, and I think it says more about the critics than the players!

I can't help but think "some" of the sMurph critics, would think Stan Magro or Darren Milburn were tough, were I see those two as pissweak! Copeland as well for that matter!

PS; I do think we need some mongrel in the team, but it won't be a tougher team if it comes at the expense of sMurph. I don't think that is the contradiction some will claim it to be!

[Gointocarlton]

Right on [member=64]PaulP[/member]

Buckley and Johnston were incredibly tough on their own, but they played with some brutal big guys who'd exact savage revenge and, more than often did.  Cross Mario, Wow, Val, and you'd get it back in spades. 

And  before them it was the likes of Big Nic, Waite, etc. We had a long history of enforcers, protectors. The game is santised now.

[PaulP]

Murphy has survived 280+ games, 5/6 coaches, a few CEO's and Heads of Football, 15 or 16 trade periods, 4? 5? contract renewals, savage list cuts etc. If he was as bad as some say, somewhere in that revolving door of coaches, board members, senior executive etc. he would have been found out by now. The club has had plenty of chances to offload him. Former captain, multiple B+F winner, never been dropped as far as I'm aware. But that's all irrelevant, he's soft. EOS lol.

[Shakin77]

Murphy dislocated his shoulder in his debut season, in tackle by Robert Copeland. Another shoulder injury colliding with Dangerfield in 2012 and a busted cheekbone colliding with Hodge in 2013. And there's probably others that I can't recall. Those three blokes are bigger and heavier than Murphy. Any apprehensiveness on his part is perhaps understandable. He's small, not dirty and alway tried to be a ball player, and has paid the price.

I'm not a fan of labelling any AFL footballer soft. I think it's distasteful. Even the "softest" player does things that would leave all of us running twice as fast the other way.

That attack on the ball with Dangerfield was brutal.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbnrh5mBCFE

Knocked out here against Port.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6qa1IcQvzc

A section of Carlton fans have always called Murph soft.   

If you look hard enough you will always find what you want.    No point arguing about it. 

[PaulP]

That attack on the ball with Dangerfield was brutal.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbnrh5mBCFE

Knocked out here against Port.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6qa1IcQvzc

A section of Carlton fans have always called Murph soft.   

If you look hard enough you will always find what you want.    No point arguing about it. 

Yes, I agree Shakin. I am quite often aware of the sheer inanity of some of the discussions in which I participate, and yet like a moth to the naked flame, I keep going. Not sure what that says about me, but anyway, sometimes the knocks on some of our players are totally  out of order, and a spirited response / defence is something I find hard to resist.